The present invention is addressed to a roof vent for accommodating a variety of roofs, that vary in pitch.
In the art of building construction, it is commonplace that roofs have slopes extending downwardly from each side of a ridge, or apex. Depending upon the style of the construction, such can be of greater pitch or lesser (flatter) pitch. Generally, there is an attic space beneath the roof. It is generally desirable to provide for ventilation of the attic space.
It is also known to provide a roof ridge ventilator to be installed over the open ridge, and then to shingle over the central portion of the ventilator that overlies the open ridge, allowing for air passage between the attic and the outside ambient, via openings through outer side edges of the ventilator.
An example of a desirable adjustable roof ridge ventilator is set forth-in U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,095 to Wolfert, the complete disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,502 also teaches a ventilator for roofs of varying pitches, allowing for ventilation via sides of the ventilator overlying a ridge, but wherein the ventilator at opposite ends of the roof forms a continuous seal against the roof, without having any gaps, slots or holes through the end walls of the roof ventilator, in order to prevent passage of insects, bugs and the like through ends of the roof ventilator.
Other prior art attempts at roof ridge ventilators exist in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,009,149 and 5,458,538, in which depending tabs, sometimes slideably overlapping, allow for sight air passage between the attic and the outside ambient.
A number of prior art attempts at making roof ridge ventilators that are flexible for accommodating roofs of different pitches, have introduced an undesirable feature whereby, when the ventilators are attempted to be bent arcuately to accommodate a roof of steep pitch, the ventilator will fold along one or more lines that are paralleled to the apex of the roof, rather than gently, arcuately bending. When such a fold line occurs, the subsequent shingling across the top of the ventilator can result in a crack in the shingle as it is bent for nailing to the top of the ventilator. If there are more than one such fold line parallel to the apex of the roof, there may be more than one such sharp bend of the shingle. Such sharp bends can tend to make the shingle at the top central portion of the ventilator crack, producing a very undesirable feature.
Also, when ventilators have end walls that are continuous, such continuous end walls can tend to resist the arcuate bending of the ventilator that may be necessary to accommodate roofs of steeper pitch.
The present invention is directed toward providing a roof ventilator, for roofs of various pitches, in which gaps in end walls of the ventilator reduce resistance to arcuate bending of the ventilator when the ventilator needs to accommodate more steeply pitched roofs, thereby avoiding fold lines as the ventilator is bent and in which substantial air passages exist between the inside of the ventilator and the outside ambient. The air passages comprise a plurality of rows of tabs, with gaps between adjacent tabs in a given row, and with gaps between the rows of tabs, and wherein the gaps together provide circuitous paths for air passage between the interior of a roof and the outside ambient across ventilator end walls, when the ventilator is installed on a roof. The gaps between tabs in a given row reduce the resistance the end walls may otherwise provide to bending of the ventilator and help in avoiding fold lines as the ventilator is arcuately bent.
It is another object to accomplish the above object, such that breezes or other airflow parallel to the apex of the roof ridge can create a lower pressure zone to draw air outwardly of an attic via an end of ventilator at the end of a roof, such that the attic over which a ventilator is installed may be ventilated when breezes or winds are not impinging upon the ventilator from a direction substantially transverse to the apex of the roof.